Hello World! England 2011: Day 4

We've arrived at Stratford-Upon-Avon, camped right outside the birthplace of  W Shakespeare.

Our guide, Geoff, takes us everywhere to look at all things Shakespeare and his family-tree. Here, we've come to visit Shakespeare's chapel and burial place.

Officially, it's called Holy Trinity Church. Because today was sunnier than yesterday, the churchyard graves looked a lot cheerier than those in Haworth.

We have a lot of free time to wander around, but I spend most of my time strolling along the banks of the Avon, after which Stratford happens to be Upon. The views are breathtakingly scenic, peaceful and the atmosphere is ideal for chillin' out.

Back at Shakespeare's birthplace, the kids request a few scenes from the Bard's plays. The resident actors oblige with snippets from Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream. The actors made the scenes look like fun and really brought the text to life for the kids.

Here, Puck is planning some mischief in the Athenian forest.

Cornish pasties for lunch at Pasty Presto. Gigantic curry puffs they are, stuffed with generous quantities of different meat, cheese and vegetable combinations. Just one sufficed for a light lunch.

There were a few buskers about. The juggling acts always amuse me. They know how to work the crowd and offer good entertainment with their banter and the promise of a payoff at the end of their performance. This guy promised to put a burning torch down his trousers and pull it out -- still lit -- from the bottom of his pants leg. In case you're wondering, he did.

And here is 'Shakespeare's Ghost' attempting to startle the kids.

I love the way animals and human beings can coexist so easily together, unlike S'pore where any animal in an urban environment is treated with disdain at best, or rounded up and disposed of, never to be heard from again. But here we have ducks -- I was quite fascinated with this yellow duckling, so different from its fellows, yet still a member of the family.

Squirrel!!!

Dinner at the Garrick Inn: Scottish scampi, chips and peas. More shovel food! Yay!

Day 4 concludes with a slightly grouchy briefing at the Travelodge, Oxford Peartree. Sadly, my companions tend to see the worst in our charges and upbraided them for their 'bad behaviour' in the morning. I guess it is an integral part of a student's life to be scolded every now and then.

Hello World! England 2011: Day 3

From Wordsworth country, we travel to Haworth, Bronte country. The day is clouded over and blustery cold, quite a contrast from yesterday. The weather is certainly evocative of the Gothic influences over the sisters' writing.

The Brontes' Parsonage, now a museum dedicated to the celebrated family.

Angela, our tour guide, swears by the fish and chips at this shop.

And now, so do we! Fish is lightly battered, not too oily. White meat with a firm bite. Chips are the kind to be eaten in quantity, the best kind.

Haworth is quite picturesque. The storefronts are still very traditional, though it isn't a real village anymore. The market clearly supports the tourist trade now.

A short stop at Haworth Station before proceeding to tonight's pit stop.

Day 3 concludes at Travelodge, Redditch. Dinner is at the attached pub. This here is a beef and white stilton stew. They really are feeding us well here.

Hello World! England 2011: Day 2

Official (and possibly mandatory) banner shot. To be used in our review presentation and other PR material.

A full breakfast of bacon and sausage and eggs with sides.

Think the kids are here on holiday? Not while there's learnin' to be done. Lake Districts National Park guide, Ben, gets the kids measuring footpath erosion to determine the extent of damage tourists like us are causing to the pristine landscape.

I should also mention that it's the hottest day of the year, according to Ben. Unshielded by cloud cover, the sun produces brilliant illumination that makes our surroundings look so picturesque, but we're melting. Burns and tan lines all-round! Nobody thought to bring sun-block. Duh.

On to the pretty little village of Grasmere to sample the local world-famous speciality, gingerbread. Also to view the Wordsworth family churchyard plot and just chill for a bit.

This shop was especially hospitable. The jolly proprietor gave our guide a whole bag full of Kendal mint cakes to share with us and the kids. He also went around with a large tray of jelly babies, and offered free samples to passers by.

Next stop, Rydel Mount, home of W Wordsworth for the rest of his life after upgrading from dove cottage. Who said poetry never amounted to much of a living?

A view of last night's youth hostel from the water. We're moving on to Bowness for dinner...

Dinner being a slice each of gammon, turkey and roast beef; with stuffing, Yorkshire pudding and all the veggies we wanted. The place? Crown Carveries in a row of shophouses called Lakeview.

Day 2 complete, on to the Travelodge, Burton and call it a night.

Hello World! England 2011: Day 1

I'm in England! To be precise, at this point I'm in the Lake District and this is a bunch of kids from college who are on tour with me. Their first educational stop off the plane is Dove Cottage, home of W Wordsworth.

Wordsworth's actual cottage, external photos -- as expected -- allowed only. Inside, the cottage is quite cramped, for a two-storey edifice. People were obviously much more sociable and smaller-built then for the cottage to accommodate a family, domestic help, frequent houseguests and a dog. Quite a number of Wordsworth's personal belongings on display, so there's a real sense of connection to the man and his period in history.

All the kids, finally together for a group shot.

Our accommodation for the night: a Youth Hostel facing Lake Windermere.  Quite cosy, though the rooms are meant to be shared three or more to a room. I have a room to myself: a perk of being a chaperone. So it's me with a choice of top or bottom in my bunk bed, or the mattress on the floor. Toilet and shower facilities are communal, so guess who's waking up early to make the best use of them?

Wholesome, hearty, nutritious university style hostel food. Thick tomato basil soup, pasta in beef bolognaise sauce and a sweet apple crumble. Stuff to shovel into mouth and stomach in large quantities. Happy.

A view of the lake from the edge of the bay. Our hostel is the building on the left. We have a grand panoramic view of the lake and the hills on the far bank. My room faces behind -- a glorious vista of the back alley and the neighbour's backyard.

Day 1 settled. Shops close early around here, so there's nothing to do but admire the scenery and turn in for an early night.

Morpheus visits

Time for some pictures of a sleepy kitty

She's been so active all day. Finally, a chance to enjoy a little stillness and silence.

Doesn't this pix make you want to pop off to bed right NOW?

P.S. as I'm typing, Grimm is asleep on my tummy. Shh... don't wake the baby...!

Victim of the puppet-masters

I've been nursing a figurative sore head over what I perceived to be unnecessary intrusions of a certain committee into a certain project I've been supervising. Never before have I encountered such a bunch of controlling, narrow-minded, meddlesome worrywarts looking over my shoulder and telling me how I should run my own business. The level of trust that I once enjoyed from the previous management has now been replaced with a new batch of paranoiacs bent on oversight at every decision I make. It's intolerable!

That was a few days ago. Today, I've calmed down some. Having talked things through with my project members, I guess it's good that the committee did make their recommendations after all. A neutral third party saw some issues that were blind spots for me, being too close to the subject matter, and alerted me to potential hazards in my processes.

Fine. But I'm still going to greet them with a surly, pouty face whenever I see them. I won't give them the satisfaction.

Meet the family

Time for Grimm to meet the family. Maui seems to have taken quite a shine to her.

Yep, here he's looking at her like he's eying a nice, light snack.

Three cats in a frame is about all I can manage. Kaiser's gone off to sulk somewhere else.

Looks like the start of a beautiful friendship... once they finally stop punching each other to establish who's Boss in these here parts.

I should have taken my mom

An unexpected day off on a non-peak period day, coupled with some great weather, and it's off to Universal Studios, no questions asked! NTUC and DBS discounts make the entrance fees more attractive on days like these. 

This is one of the reasons why we're here... the 'Revenge of the Mummy'! Here we have a decent coaster with something of a story that perpetuates throughout the ride. With pyrotechnics, cool lighting effects and parts of the ride taking place in blackout, it's quite intense for someone queueing up thinking 'thank god, I'm not riding a roller coaster'. Warning signs are all around, so there's no excuse for being unwary.

Our reward for braving and defeating Imhotep... a dandy souvenir snapshot with Queen Nefertitty!

And the real reason why we're here is because of these two bad boys, the BSG Human/Cylon dueling rides! Only the best rides ever -- within the scope of my limited coaster riding experience. The Human side is already quite intense with lots of tight loops to negotiate. But the Cylon side is a suspended coaster which means that every loop and twist is amplified from the riders' pov. We're frequently head-over-heels, facing nothing but cloudy blue sky or hard, unforgiving floor beneath, our breath taken away by the sensation of high-speed flight. In many other theme parks, this one would be the most crowded; but the screams of the brave few were enough to keep most other people away. Only in S'pore, right? Oh well, more for us, then!

So, what else is there for non-thrill seekers to do at USS? Well, there are a number of (yawn) milder rides that are still kinda' fun, though not exactly mind-blowingly so. There are lots of shows to catch, mostly involving singing and dancing costumed mascots that are lively and reasonably entertaining, and there's this: Waterworld. Only two shows a day, with lots of flash-and-bang, collapsing structures, high-speed water shenanigans and rope traversing. It's way more fun to sit in the soak zone 'cos the action is right in your face, as are the water jets, sea-craft spray and the characters' sloshing buckets which they use to motivate audience participation. It's ok, in our climate our clothes dry out in no time.

Oh, I was a little anxious about the crowd situation on an off-peak day. Normally, I am crowd averse but theme parks are exciting only when there are people jostling shoulder-to-shoulder while standing in queues waiting for their turn at the rides. There's nothing sadder than an empty theme park. I shouldn't have worried. The place was packed full of tour groups enough so it sounded noisy and happy, and yet not so much that wait-time was interminably long per ride. Best of both worlds!

HP asked for an assessment of the activities here at USS. I say there's quite enough to do and see for a full day of fun and entertainment for everybody -- just a little more so for coaster freaks. BSG! BSG!

Renewal

Once again, the torch of leadership passes on. 2011's Exco has given way to the newbies of 2012 who must now take the helm and chart their own way. With every batch, NYeDC has raised its accomplishments bar. But I truly take my hat off to 2011 for having the vision, the work ethic, the belief in the worth of their shared goals, and the -- yes -- administrative strength to pull of one of the most successful seasons we've had ever.

The newbies now, led by CJ, will have to step up a lot to fill the space their predecessors have left behind. Shammo and Co are a tough act to follow, but they have been an exceptional bunch which was able to capitalize on all their individual strengths and cover for each others' personal weaknesses. Hope the noobs will find their feet soon. We have a reputation to uphold thanks to our success at Drama Night last weekend. Let's see what 2012 can do to take us further on!

The Grimmest of days

Haven't been updating for so long. Spent the last three plus weeks Exec Producing Drama Night 2011 and working 14-15 hours a day juggling between class and stage. Brain dead by the time I get home every night :p

I don't begrudge the time spent, though. When I see the kids working so fervently on a common goal -- the show -- and note the many sacrifices they were making to make it a great show, I knew enough to step back and let the creative juices flow.

Too bad outsiders of the club will never see the energy, drive and gusto amidst the blood, sweat and tears invested in the production. Everything from the set (including Rapunzel's tower and Cindy's fireplace) was made from scratch out of huge sheets of art board; the various hand props comprising fairy tale paraphernalia all painstakingly designed, manufactured and hand-painted by the kids themselves There was no distinction between "Actors" and backstage crew -- everyone lent a hand regardless of their place on stage.

Of course, multi-tasking like that caused us a lot of heart attacks too. Rehearsals could not begin in earnest until the set and prop items were complete. Hence the many days of long hours, hard work, angry parents and teachers, stressed-out security guards anxious to lock up after us, and tired kids.

We'd never attempted a full-feature length play before. A full 90-minute monster which went through several rounds of writing and rewriting right up to full-dress rehearsal. New sound and lighting cues kept throwing off what we'd settled on in previous rehearsals, constantly confusing cast and crew.

Honestly, by the time we could work with full runs it was already production week and rehearsals were dire. My fellow Exec Producers were casting sidelong glances at each other wondering how we could put such a show up for public display. At $8 a ticket. It would have been a real pity if the show flopped, considering how much work everyone put into it.

Despite our misgivings, opening night was a blast! Energized by a boisterous audience thrilled to see their friends on stage, the kids gave their all, fully committed to their roles and -- er, mostly -- alert to their cues. There were mistakes, but the kids covered well for each other, and the crowd was forgiving. Likewise for 2nd night, though the crowd was mainly parents and walk-ins.

It was altogether a fantastic run for us. We made the audience laugh at the right places and impressed with a quality performance that people are going to remember and talk about for a while. The kids will face a reality of pain when they return to their regular schoolwork now that the season has ended, but I think it will be worth it. Through these last weeks, the kids have experienced a kind of magic that will never leave them. They've made some very good friends who've suffered with them throughout the production, and that's a bonding that cannot easily be erased. They've led and organized themselves in a joint project they all believed in, and they've grown in confidence and stature as a result of it. Their peers are going to look at them with a new respect from now on.

NYeDC has reached a new level of theatrical professionalism, and I and my fellow Expros are really proud of the club for moving us so far forward towards my dream.

For rehearsal and production stills, check out my Webshots album.

In the meantime, June has picked up a new kitty whom I shall name Grimm in honour of our production.

Miao!

Business as usual

And so the dust has settled, the rhetoric spent. It is a brand new day, but perhaps not exactly the one we were promised. On the whole, our voters voted for status quo, business as usual. The Workers gained a lot, the incumbents lost a little by way of vote share. So while there is movement towards more alternative voices in public debate, the electorate has been careful not to jump at making radical changes too quickly.

What the Workers proved is that the GRC system is not as undefeatable as is widely claimed. As long as the Opposition can field a credible, capable and trustworthy team to rival the incumbent, they will win the backing of their voters and their seats in Parliament. This election has already thrust several potential Opposition candidates into the limelight, so if they can get themselves together and prepare for the next election their challenge will be even stronger.

In the meantime, the incumbents have been shaken enough to make a campaign apology for past mistakes and they have a lot of catching up to win back the voters they have lost since the last election. But really, the writing is on the wall. This election has been the most exciting one in a long time. During the campaigning there was a sense that the results may not be the forgone conclusion they were in the past. With the massive turnouts at the rallies and the incumbents put on the defensive with practically every ward being contested, the people are beginning to aspire towards a less lopsided Parliament. But not so soon.

The Workers have their chance to prove themselves more than just fiery campaigners who can talk a good fight, but as the MPs their voters have mandated them to be. If Hougang and Aljunied can deliver both the goods and the alternative voice they promised in their speeches, the next election will prove to be even more exciting.

Time to choose

When it comes down to it -- and it HAS come down to it -- I only need the government for one thing: to just do for the common good whatever I, the individual, am unable to do for myself. All I want is a system that functions cleanly, efficiently and without bias to take care of the material wellbeing of society in general.

The arguments put forward during this round of election campaigning generally boil down to one key issue:  to have a government with a heart for the poor little individual person. Me. But by the criterion above, that's quite the antithesis of the reason why we need a government.

And anyway, I think that if we, the people, already have no heart for one another in the first place, then having the government take over that responsibility on our behalf isn't going to change diddly-squat for anyone.

I know who I'm voting for, and why. Do you?

A couple more Grimm pix

Drama Night details revealed! The kids unveiled this huge banner last night. Did I mention the Drama kids are quite ambitious this year?

The J1 cast in partial costumes.

I know which seat to take

I'm alive! Alive, I tell you! Survived a harrowing drive from downtown back to campus with two girls squashed under a 2m long art board that took up almost all the space there was in M2's driving compartment. It was raining, it was night-time and visibility was poor, with me sitting up as straight as I could so I could peer over the board through the windscreen. The rear window was completely obscured.

Art supplies were for the set of Drama Night which we are making on our own, from scratch. With one girl kickin' in the front seat and the other sittin' in the back seat, both complaining bitterly about how crammed M2 was and if I would ever consider upgrading to a lorry, this must be one of the craziest things I've ever done for NYeDC.

A Confucian family

Dear diary
Mommy and daddy are squabbling again. Every 4-5 years, mommy can't stand it any more and throws a hissy fit at daddy's excesses. Daddy can be a bit of an a** at home, focused as he is on work but not taking as much time out to sayang us as we'd like. Whenever there's an argument, daddy can only say that he knows best... etc. He's really not very articulate at home.

Mommy feels especially indignant because daddy earns so much money, but our household sees so little of it. Parts of our house are falling to bits, but he only seems interested in fixing the bits that he feels most at home in first. Mommy is mad that daddy didn't take his housework seriously. He forgot to clean the drains, and they overflowed twice in 50 years. Also, some of our siblings are not so well-off because they have difficulty finding good jobs, but daddy doesn't see fit to take away the privileges of our more successful brothers and sisters to help them. After all, if we're so concerned for our needier brethren, then we should help them out of our own initiative and not let them depend on handouts from him all the time. Selfish man.

Another of mommy's pet peeves is that he makes us siblings who are working chip in to fund his many hare-brained investments which, as the stock market goes, you win some, you lose some. Daddy is such a dreamer, driving mommy nuts with his impossible schemes -- and though some of them actually do come true, they're exorbitantly expensive and guess who pays for them? Fortunately, for all our losses, we haven't broken the bank yet and our wins are still enough to keep us decently watered, fed and clothed and our house is still the envy of the neighbourhood.

And despite mommy's shrill insistence that we're all on the verge of poverty, most of us do earn enough money to occasionally splurge on mad things like good food, movies, expensive handbags, new cellphones, big-screen TVs and high-speed Internet access -- though we don't have all that much money to buy them without thinking it over a few times first. But it sure would be nice if we could just buy whatever we wanted like rich people, wouldn't it?

Daddy allows the neighbours' kids to drop in and visit, and sometimes they have sleepovers with us. Mommy doesn't like them very much because they aren't very well-behaved, they're dirty, smelly and poor and she feels that they are just sponging off our goodwill. She would chase them out of our house, if it were up to her. After all, Daddy's too busy at work all day, so who's going to clean up the mess they're making and stop them from snatching the spoons out of the babies' mouths?

Mommy can't help thinking like a housewife, always demanding for her money... now, complaining that daddy isn't helping out in the house 'cos he's spending too much time outside making crazy deals or cozying up to his buddies from around the world. She doesn't like how he can't discipline his children properly, like my bro, Mas, who has rage management issues. He threatened to break some of our nice home furnishings and hurt some of us because... well, we don't really know why. All daddy could do was to talk nicely to him but he ran away from home. Fortunately, because daddy's good friends with the neighbours, they helped to find Mas and bring him back. Now he is safely sitting in the corner until he has a change of attitude.

That's the one thing I worry about mommy. Daddy can be an indulgent, neglectful and fairly absent Asian father with terrible parenting skills. But mommy is quite insular, especially with her regard of our neighbours toward whom she is quite openly hostile. Left to her, I'm worried that she will throw our friends out (except the ones we can entice to do our housework for us) and not let us play outside either. Her view doesn't stretch beyond the four walls of our house, and her agenda doesn't extend towards maintaining good relations with our neighbours. But because our house is the envy of our neighbourhood, we're likely to become a target for people to throw rocks at, if we're going to act all uppity and unneighbourly towards them.

If we were self-sufficient and lived in the middle of nowhere, we can afford to be parochial; but we live and thrive because we have been able to maintain our relevance as the centre of everywhere. Even if we don't take the paranoid view that our neighbours are homicidal maniacs on a hair-trigger, the worst thing they can and probably will do is ignore us when we cease to interest them any further. Fact is, we depend on the goodwill of our neighbours for even our basic necessities. Let's see how quickly we turn to cannibalism once our household supplies run out.

With daddy looking out and mommy looking in, both become total jerks around this time. Fortunately, our family has rules about quarrels of this sort. Mommy and daddy will rage at each other, call each other names and try to sway their children to support one or the other through threats, bribes or pure undiluted vitriol. But once the haranguing on both sides reaches its apex, it stops. Everything calms down again and life goes on.

It's looking like a Grimm Affair

Our Producer reviews her grand plan for Drama Night 2011

The minions, hard at work

What would we ever do without our blocks? They are the stars of every Drama Night since we got them!

Mirror, mirror, on the... hey! Are you paying any attention to me?

"Flames! Flames!"

Let the sparks fly

What's going down in our little dot these next few days is the showdown between the two main factions of people that comprise our national electorate.

In the Champion's corner is the lightning bolt -- a spark of electricity that powers every comfort and convenience we depend on in modern society. With electricity, everything we want we get in an instant, at least those of us who are wired up into the system. Electricity operates safely only when insulated. It prefers being left to function on its own as the more resistance it encounters, the more heat it generates at the expense of work output. Electricity is determined to drag us kicking and screaming into the future, but with its relentless pace always pushing forward and outward, only those who can keep up benefit the most, while the rest get left behind.

In the Challenger's corner is the hammer, a symbol of manual labour, requiring human muscle and motor skill to operate. A hand tool for the individual worker building plank by plank, nail by nail, the hammer needs the community cooperation of the sort the Amish rely on to build their barns. Everyone rolls up his sleeves and pitches in out of friendship, kinship or some other social obligation -- no one is above his neighbour in this effort. The hammer builds a close-knit but closed-off society whose particular traditions and values identify others as unwelcome strangers and outsiders. But in the age of electricity, the hammer just seems a bit obsolete and slow as an implement of work.

Progress vs tradition; individual opportunity vs social solidarity; insulation from the people's views vs insulation from the world's realities. In about a week's time, we will again get to choose our path for another political term. As always, our choices seem so mutually exclusive.